The present invention pertains to lightweight structural wall panels for buildings and, more particularly, to such panels having a hollow core interior construction that may be adapted for use in industrial, commercial and residential building structures.
The potential for the use of hollow core elements in the construction of buildings and other structures has been known for many years. Hollow cores of corrugated or honeycomb paper or metal sheet material, enclosed by upper and lower skin panels or sheets, have long been used or proposed for use as floor, wall and roof panels for buildings. However, the use of such hollow core panels has been inhibited because of difficulties in fabricating the panels in an efficient and cost effective manner.
In my co-pending patent application Ser. No. 11/476,474, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Manufacturing Open Core Elements from Web Material”, filed Jun. 28, 2006, and Ser. No. 11/769,879, bearing the same title and filed Jun. 28, 2007, both of which applications are incorporated by reference herein, there are disclosed systems and techniques for manufacturing hollow core panels of widely varying dimensions using corrugating techniques and a unique lay-up process. Those systems and techniques are applied to make building wall panels of diverse constructions.
In addition, the building wall panels described herein are useful in the construction of buildings utilizing floor and roof constructions described in my co-pending patent application Ser. Nos. 11/485,823, entitled “Hollow Core Floor and Deck Element”, filed Jul. 13, 2006, and Ser. No. 11/777,002, bearing the same title and filed on Jul. 12, 2007, which applications are also incorporated by reference herein.